


to recreate us (all things grow)

by lavellamps (froggymurdock)



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Magic, Cole has Autism, Families of Choice, Friendship, Gen, Road Trips, Sera Cole and Dorian are Not White, Smoking, it's not brought up but i write him as being Autistic, not really mentioned but that's what i had in mind, references to Sufjan Stevens, they're on summer break, title shamelessly borrowed from Sweet Sufjan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 22:07:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14578662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggymurdock/pseuds/lavellamps
Summary: It's just them and the open road.





	to recreate us (all things grow)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a portfolio piece, but I think it works well on its own. Please let me know if I should add any more tags.

Day 1

It’s the beginning of summer when Dorian pulls up in front of Sera’s apartment at 5 am- Cole’s already in the backseat of the car, holding a small bag of knick-knacks in his lap, his hat on the seat next to him. Dorian honks the horn twice, the sound ringing out in the quiet neighborhood, and grins when she pokes her head out the window, scowling and cursing him out, her hair frizzier than usual. He yells at her to pack a bag and come down, and so she does, throwing her stuff into the trunk and herself into the front seat.

And then they’re off.

———

Day 5

Sera has her feet on the dashboard of the car, singing loudly to some rock song on the radio as they drive past the city borders. Cole is in the backseat, waving at dogs and cats and birds and any other animal he can see. Dorian’s eyes are tired but he still smiles when Cole tries singing along with Sera. She mutters something about him “ruining it,” but Dorian can see her grin.

When Cole points it out to her, it disappears, but Dorian knows that it will return soon enough.

———

Day 7

They’re eating in lunch some small town diner- Sera is sipping on a milkshake, while Cole is eyeing his plate of food. He’s certainly improved from when he was picked up off the streets, all those years ago, but it still worries Dorian to see the boy grimace at the sight of yogurt or toast or eggs. He watches as Cole nibbles on the edge of a french fry, smiling when the boy’s eyes light up in interest and he takes another bite.

Sera demands another milkshake. Dorian concedes- some battles can’t be won.

———

Day 12

Sera draws while he’s driving- small doodles of places they’ve been or people they’ve seen. Explosions. Bees. Exploding bees. Butts. Cole likes to make suggestions, but Sera mostly ignores them in favor of her own ideas. Dorian sees her attempt over and over to sketch out her adoptive father- a burly man with the physique of a lumberjack and the eyes of a soldier. She tries, again and again, and amasses a collection of crumpled paper and pencil shavings.

“Could never get him right,” she confesses to Dorian one night. “He’s too good.”

———

Day 17

They stop in the California Desert- it’s midnight and they’re seated on a blanket next to the car, watching the stars. Cole names the constellations he recognizes from the books Dorian recommended, and the man smiles because the boy is reading now, of his own initiative, a mere shadow of the violent street rat he once was. Sera is on the hood of the car, singing along with her battered guitar- homemade from a cigar box and painted a bright shade of peppermint red.

Dorian can smell rain. He frowns. Cole smiles. Sera keeps singing.

———

Day 24

Sera and Cole are both in the backseat, dozing under a blanket, the movie on Dorian’s laptop long abandoned in favor of sleep. Dorian adjusts the rearview mirror to look at them- they were so young and had already faced so much hardship. From street rats to vigilantes, back to street rats, and then finally living as normally a people who had no childhoods can live. It hurts him, in a way, to see their skinny bodies curled up in the backseat, like two siblings on vacation.

But then he smiles. _Siblings. I like that._

———

Day 28

They park by the Salton Sea- Cole had read about it in a travel manual and insisted that they visit. He walks over the beach with his shoes off, his feet not touching sand, but bone, because fish do not live here, their bodies instead forming the shore. Sera wanders through abandoned buildings, snapping photos of graffiti, refusing to approach the water because something ancient lives there. Cole faces the water, watching the waves lap at a shore made of death, his hat pulled low over his eyes.

He does not argue when Dorian pulls him away. He does not like this place.

———

Day 33

They’re on the road again, and Cole is counting clouds- by type, by size, by shape. It was all fair game in his eyes. The boy had immersed himself in books on clouds when they’d stopped at a library in Laughlin. His eyes had wandered over picture upon picture, word upon word, memorizing them forward and backward. He’d taken notes, so he’d have the clouds with him no matter what.

Sera thought it stupid. Dorian thought it admirable. Cole didn’t think much of it at all.

———

Day 39

Sera keeps her archery equipment with her at all times- her quiver in the front seat, her tab spinning around her finger, her arm-guard chafing against her elbow. She drags them to a range after lunch one day, her bow case slug under her arm. They stay there for three hours, her skill earning the ire of a hunter there- a gruff man of about 50 years, who’s jealous of the 23-year-old savant who’s never had a lesson in her life.

 _Pathetic,_ Dorian thinks to himself. And, somehow, he knows that Cole agrees.

———

Day 45

They watch shows in the car- stupid, offensive shows about bad people doing bad things and never learning their lesson. They laugh at the idiots on their screen, as they spit fire and shoot rockets and curse each other out, and then do it all again the next episode. Cole doesn’t understand why Dorian and Sera like it so much- “The people are bad, and they hurt other people- why is that funny?”

They don’t try to explain it- he wouldn’t understand even if they did.

———

Day 47

They pause at a truck stop at 2 am, after driving all day. Sera immediately climbs from the front seat to the back, shoving Cole over and snuggling into his blanket. She’s out in a minute. Cole, meanwhile, steps out of the car, stretching his long legs- Sera is a good two inches shorter than Dorian, while Cole is a good two inches taller than him. He looks up at the stars while Dorian turns the car off, watching as the man pulls his sweater off, revealing the tattoo all the way down his left arm. In the moonlight, the man is almost ghostly, and Cole can’t help but feel the same, his freckled, dark skin glowing like that of a spirit- invisible and forgotten and, ultimately, unwanted.

Then Dorian turns and smiles at him, and the feeling is lost.

———

Day 50

They’re driving through the countryside, dawn fast approaching over the horizon. Cole is listening to a white noise playlist Dorian bought for him, and hums in time with the different tones. Sera rolls down the window and puts a cigarette in her lips- Dorian snatches it away, ignoring Sera’s glare. She pulls another out, and he snatches that too, crushing it between his fingers and throwing it out the window. She bares her teeth at him, pouting and slumping back into her seat dejectedly.

“You can’t,” Cole says solemnly from the backseat. “You’re not ready. You never will be.”

———

Day 52

Their skin is each a different shade of brown- Sera’s being the lightest, Cole’s being the darkest. They stand out against the white sand of the lake, the sky clear over their heads, the sun shining bright, heating the Earth. Sera dives in, head first, laughing and grinning and splashing about. Dorian slips in with significantly more grace, the water cooling him in the harsh heat, trying and failing to keep out of Sera’s 10-foot splash radius. He retaliates with extreme force, and soon they’re in an all-out splash fight, laughing and yelling in delight.

Cole sits on the beach, watching them. He doesn’t like water. It reminds him of bad things.

———

Day 58

Sera is napping in the back, wanting to stretch the cramps out of her legs. Cole is in the front seat, attempting idle conversation with Dorian and watching signs go by. The song on the radio is slow and filled with sadness, about the singer’s teenage lover slowly dying of cancer. Dorian doesn’t wonder why Cole starts crying- the boy has always been an empath. He simply pats Cole’s shoulder and asks if he should turn it off. The boy’s eyes are gray and watery, and he looks so sorrowful that Dorian wants to hug him and never let go.

“No,” Cole says, wiping his tear-stained cheeks. “The man is sad. I want to be sad with him.”

———

Day 67

They sit over the stars on the salt flats in Utah, because there, the sky is on the ground. Sera is holding Dorian’s head in her lap, running her fingers over his undercut. She lets Cole hold her guitar, instructing him as he tries to pluck out a tune, his painted fingernails scraping over grimy strings. He is reciting from a book of poetry he’d bought in a gift shop, leaning against Sera’s shoulder when she wraps an arm around him. His skin seems to reflect the stars as well as any salt flat, and Sera points this out, ruffling his greasy hair and poking his cheek. 

Cole’s smile is measured and reserved, Sera laughs, and in that moment, Dorian is home.

———


End file.
